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Ottawa’s public school board appears poised to drop its legally questionable plan of moving kindergarten students out of Elgin Street Public School to solve overcrowding there.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board voted in favour of that solution in February, only to be informed by a University of Ottawa law professor whose daughter is going into kindergarten that it’s illegal. The Ontario Education Act requires all elementary schools to offer full-day kindergarten.
Parents have been feuding over which children will have to leave the school in September: the kindergarteners, or students in the English program, which was the option recommended by staff. Now it appears the fighting was all for naught because the board doesn’t have much legal choice in the matter.
The trustee for the ward, Erica Braunovan, said she’ll propose a motion at Tuesday’s board meeting that the English program move to Centennial Public School instead.
A few days ago, some trustees were hoping the Ministry of Education would grant an exemption to allow kindergarten to be eliminated from Elgin Street PS.
That does not appear likely, at least in time for September, said Braunovan.
Related
The ministry has never granted an exception, and would ask for a lot of evidence and time to consider such a request, school board staff warned in a memo. There’s no time to spare. Staffing must be put in place at Elgin Street PS and parents informed about which school their children will be attend in the fall.
Braunovan had initially proposed the motion to move the kindergarteners, saying it would be the best temporary solution until a wider study of schools in Centretown can be conducted.
In a Facebook posting, Braunovan explained that the education ministry has not developed a “process for requesting, reviewing or granting exemptions to the less than two-year-old law requiring kindergarten at every elementary school. As such, there are no guidelines in place for how long it would take to determine whether the kindergarten program can be moved from Elgin Street to Centennial. A decision cannot be postponed any longer though as overcrowding must be addressed before September.”
Amir Attaran, the professor who pointed out the legal problem, was aghast at Braunovan’s post. “It is rather lacking in taste, intelligence and accountability that she blames the ministry for not giving an exemption, and not her own failure of moving kindergarten when that was illegal.
“Braunovan should be apologizing for her error, rather than seeking to deflect blame upon the ministry.”
Braunovan said that was not her intention. “I feel awful,” she said in an interview. “This has been very divisive in the community, and I take full responsibility for the part I’ve played in it.”
She and board chair Shirley Seward acknowledge that both trustees and staff failed to notice the Education Act requirement, but said such errors don’t occur often.
Seward said the important thing now is to move on from the controversy and try to heal the rifts among parents at Elgin Street PS.
The York Catholic District School Board in southern Ontario was caught in a similar bind in 2014 when trustees proposed eliminating kindergarten from an elementary school, only to face parent protests and the threat of legal action. The board sought a legal opinion, concluded it had to offer kindergarten, and changed course.
William Reid, the Aurora, Ont. lawyer who helped the parents, said in an interview that he expects the education ministry would not grant an exemption for one small school in Ottawa, because any ruling might have implications for boards across the province.
jmiller@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMiller
查看原文...
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board voted in favour of that solution in February, only to be informed by a University of Ottawa law professor whose daughter is going into kindergarten that it’s illegal. The Ontario Education Act requires all elementary schools to offer full-day kindergarten.
Parents have been feuding over which children will have to leave the school in September: the kindergarteners, or students in the English program, which was the option recommended by staff. Now it appears the fighting was all for naught because the board doesn’t have much legal choice in the matter.
The trustee for the ward, Erica Braunovan, said she’ll propose a motion at Tuesday’s board meeting that the English program move to Centennial Public School instead.
A few days ago, some trustees were hoping the Ministry of Education would grant an exemption to allow kindergarten to be eliminated from Elgin Street PS.
That does not appear likely, at least in time for September, said Braunovan.
Related
- How the Ottawa school board unwittingly broke the law with its solution to overcrowding at Elgin Street school
- Elgin Street school can't ship out kindergarten students, trustees told
- School board decision on Elgin Street school is illegal, says law prof
The ministry has never granted an exception, and would ask for a lot of evidence and time to consider such a request, school board staff warned in a memo. There’s no time to spare. Staffing must be put in place at Elgin Street PS and parents informed about which school their children will be attend in the fall.
Braunovan had initially proposed the motion to move the kindergarteners, saying it would be the best temporary solution until a wider study of schools in Centretown can be conducted.
In a Facebook posting, Braunovan explained that the education ministry has not developed a “process for requesting, reviewing or granting exemptions to the less than two-year-old law requiring kindergarten at every elementary school. As such, there are no guidelines in place for how long it would take to determine whether the kindergarten program can be moved from Elgin Street to Centennial. A decision cannot be postponed any longer though as overcrowding must be addressed before September.”
Amir Attaran, the professor who pointed out the legal problem, was aghast at Braunovan’s post. “It is rather lacking in taste, intelligence and accountability that she blames the ministry for not giving an exemption, and not her own failure of moving kindergarten when that was illegal.
“Braunovan should be apologizing for her error, rather than seeking to deflect blame upon the ministry.”
Braunovan said that was not her intention. “I feel awful,” she said in an interview. “This has been very divisive in the community, and I take full responsibility for the part I’ve played in it.”
She and board chair Shirley Seward acknowledge that both trustees and staff failed to notice the Education Act requirement, but said such errors don’t occur often.
Seward said the important thing now is to move on from the controversy and try to heal the rifts among parents at Elgin Street PS.
The York Catholic District School Board in southern Ontario was caught in a similar bind in 2014 when trustees proposed eliminating kindergarten from an elementary school, only to face parent protests and the threat of legal action. The board sought a legal opinion, concluded it had to offer kindergarten, and changed course.
William Reid, the Aurora, Ont. lawyer who helped the parents, said in an interview that he expects the education ministry would not grant an exemption for one small school in Ottawa, because any ruling might have implications for boards across the province.
jmiller@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMiller
查看原文...
